Space-Time of Death: an Al Squires of the Protectorate Novel

Ch.19.1: Just in Time or Out of Time? I Guess We'll Find Out.

The four of us arrived in the lobby of Ouroboros HQ long after we left for 1893 Chicago the first time around, but not before the Protocol was scheduled to change. There's a reason for that, but now's not the time to explain. As soon as we got our bearings, we rushed over to meet up with the others at the meeting room where we brainstormed the strategy to get Sylvie. We agreed to have at least one person in that room to meet us should anything happen.

"Do you think we're too late?" Norah asked as we walked quickly down the hall, speaking softly so not to let any passersby hear. "For all we know, Sister Time could've teleported straight to where they kept the Temporalmanac Ultima and already gotten the information?"

"We shouldn't worry about that, Norah dear," Lady Lane said softly. "The Chamber has an anti-teleportation field surrounding it; it's virtually impossible for anyone to teleport into the Chamber. There's only one door in and out, and that is highly secure. She would have to teleport herself close to the chamber's location, however."

"Besides, I doubt she went straight here," I replied in the same tone of voice. "In order to read the TU, she'd have needed time to make a special lens out of the ones that she collected from her victim's eyes. That makes her lose some time and gain some for us in the process. How much on either side, I can't say."

"That's another thing that I wanted to ask," Norah said. "Do you think this lens you're talking about will work with only one of Sylvie's eyes?"

"Lenses, not eyes, dear," Lady Lane answered instead of me. "As for that, I'm afraid that there's no way of knowing. For all we know, it'll make the process slower than usual, or it will only give her partial information. Of course, partial information would still be just as dangerous."

"Suppose she's already showed up before we arrived? Or even just as we arrived?" Norah asked. "Are we just in time, or out of time?"

"Well, she would have to show up here at least once before she pulled it off," I responded. "At least to evaluate the security or distract security. Whether we're just in time or out of it?" I shrugged. "I guess will find out the as soon as we meet up with the others and exchange information," I said to her. I paused. "'Just in time or out of time?'" I mused, repeating the question. "You know what? That would make—"

"We know, a good name for a chapter," all three of my colleagues said with vexed sighs and rolled eyes, with Norah practically leading the charge.

Without stopping, I glared at them for a beat. "Actually, I was going to say that it'd almost make a good chapter name," I said in my defense, secretly worried that my material was going stale.

A moment or two later, we arrived at the meeting room, and were greeted by Maddie, Rozz, and Clint. The three bombarded us with all sorts of questions the instant we entered the room, mostly about Sylvie. After the first few moments, Lady Lane calmly raised a hand and said only two words that silenced them: "Sylvie's alive." After a couple of beats she added, "We left her over with the Cleaners. They should bring her to the infirmary at any time now."

"The infirmary?" Maddie asked, worried. "Has something happened to my girl?"

Lady Lane hesitated before answering. "Unfortunately, we didn't arrive soon enough. She had been mutilated when we got there." Maddie stiffed a whimper when she heard the word 'mutilated.' "But we took care of her enough to stabilize her until the Cleaners came. Before we left, the prognosis looked good, but we can't be for certain."

"And Sister Time?" Rozz asked. "I know that killing the bint would cause a one dandy of a paradox, but did you at least catch her?"

Lady Lane sighed deeply at this question, "I'm afraid to say that Sister Time got away before we had a chance to capture her." She held herself high and tall. "It was my call to make," she added stoically, "and I'll take whatever consequence that may come. Until then, we should be extra vigilant." She then nodded over to me. "Agent Squires here pointed out that this point in time we be among the best chances she'd have to reach her goal. Now, how were things at your end? Have you picked up any temporal fluctuations or sightings of her while we were gone?"